The Delhi High Court has expressed helplessness and ire at the “menace of urinating in public” but has conceded it cannot ensure that when “a man walks out of his house, his zip should be locked”.

The bench of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Deepa Sharma made this observation while disposing a petition which sought orders to remove pictures of gods and goddesses from walls of a group housing society since men walking on the road often urinated against the wall.

The petition, filed by Manoj Sharma through advocates A K Mishra and M K Upadhyay, said such behaviour “hurt religious sentiments”. He had also filed photographs to show that residents of buildings, especially group housing complexes, fixed photos of gods and goddesses on the walls with messages to stop people from urinating on the wall.

“…the Indian habit of relieving the pressure on the bladder by unzipping and peeing on the first wall seen by the person is sought to be curtailed, if not at all prohibited, by affixing photographs of deities on the walls. The hope would be that man, the greatest creation of the infinite artist, would not bare his privies in front of his lord and would not urinate on the road,” the court observed.

Accepting the government argument that it did not have authority to order people not to put up pictures of gods and goddesses or remove pictures from public spaces, the court dismissed the petition saying “the menace of urinating in public has to be solved elsewhere”.